The artists of the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in concert at Palazzo Medici Riccardi

Florence, February 17, 2026 – An event dedicated to emerging opera talents: on Wednesday, February 18, 2026 at 6:00 PM, at the institutional venue of the Sala Luca Giordano of Palazzo Medici Riccardi, a concert featuring the artists of the Accademia del Maggio will take place.

The performers will be the talented Juana Shtrepi (soprano), Elizaveta Shuvalova (soprano), Erica Cortese (mezzo-soprano), Francesco Congiu (tenor), Mario Greco (tenor), and Huigang Liu (bass), young artists enrolled in the residential training program “The Art of the Debut,” a project promoted by the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in partnership with the Teatro del Maggio, supported by the Ministry of Culture and SIAE within the framework of the “Per Chi Crea” program, and under the patronage of the Metropolitan City of Florence.

Accompanying them on the piano will be Eliana Borsellino, collaborative pianist of the Accademia del Maggio.

Set in a context of great historical and cultural significance, the concert represents an important milestone in the young singers’ artistic journey and is part of the Accademia’s artistic activities—an institution of excellence committed to fostering and refining new generations of performers, with the aim of guiding them toward the professional world through artistic residency programs.

The musical program features some of the most celebrated pages of the operatic repertoire, with works by Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Offenbach, Massenet, Puccini, Cilea, and Giordano, offering the audience a journey through bel canto, Romanticism, and the great Italian and European tradition.

Enhancing the evening will be a musical tribute featuring the prelude and an aria from the opera I Medici by Ruggero Leoncavallo, on the anniversary of the death of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, the Electress Palatine—the last descendant of the grand-ducal branch of the family—who died on February 18, 1743. She is credited with making the immense Medici artistic and cultural heritage accessible to the public.

To honor her memory, the concert will be preceded by a brief introduction by Valentina Zucchi, Scientific Director of the Museum of Palazzo Medici Riccardi, who will illustrate her figure and her fundamental role in safeguarding the city’s artistic and cultural heritage.

Free admission by reservation, subject to availability.
Reservations: [email protected]

Entrance from Via de’ Ginori 2.